Walking the road together in community is a way of life we speak of and intentionally try to walk out here at Linwood House Ministries. It can mean sharing and celebrating together with the same amount of honesty and truth as sharing the messiness of life when we are broken and unable to see where we are going.
Last year many of us read Chasing Francis, by Ian Morgan Cron. It is a parable that beautifully takes us into the journey of what happens when we ask the questions of God that are outside the box, the questions of God we are afraid to ask. And in asking those questions it often begins a pilgrimage, a journey into God’s heart where we begin to lose the illusions and find a raw honest celebratory relationship with God.
Discovering God’s Heart for Suffering Women is a 40 day prayer pilgrimage/journal that has been one of the pillars of Linwood House Ministries. Right inside the front cover is this verse from Psalm 84:5: “Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.”
As this New Year begins I feel the Spirit speaking about “pilgrimage”. The translation of Psalm 84:5 in The Message becomes a morning meditation:
“And how blessed all those in whom you live,
Whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
Discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
At the last turn – Zion! God in full view!”
How does my life become a road God travels? As the Spirit braids together our personal purpose, our personal life experience, and our waiting time in Holy Presence, what does this chord become in the pilgrimage?
I received the book The Road to Emmaus – Pilgrimage as a Way of Life for Christmas. Pilgrimage is about community, movement, Holy Presence, and the reality of where we are now, and, that we will not be staying there. Jim Forest (the author) quotes his friend Paul Chandler, a Carmelite priest:
“You can be a traveler on your own, but not, I think, a pilgrim. Pilgrimage connects you to something bigger than yourself. Pilgrimage connects you to longings that come from deep places and that cannot be easily explained. Even the solitary pilgrim is on a shared quest, overhearing some whisper of a conversation that has been going on for years. Pilgrims don’t always have a clear idea of what they’re doing or why they’re doing it, but they keep going, exchanging nods on the way. Their touch can wear away stone. Grace is subtle and elusive. You’re not a pilgrim if you stay where you are.”
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We each begin our 2008 pilgrimage, not knowing where it will take us, but knowing we must go. Daily life is an essential piece of this pilgrimage. Shalom, deep peace, to you as you travel. Should we meet on our respective pilgrimage we will each gain as our own chord of purpose, experience and Holy Presence continues to be braided.
~ Stephanie Moul